Video: Amory Students Turn Pumpkins into Reading Project

AMORY, Miss. (WCBI) – Students at East Amory Elementary are getting into the Halloween spirit with a reading project. As part of a school wide reading assignment for grades three through five, students at East Amory Elementary turned iconic halloween pumpkins into characters from their favorite book.

Participating students were given the opportunity to get extra credit as a major grade to make a pumpkin as any book character of their choice. So we decided to do it as a class, so everybody would be able to get their extra credit,” says Brittany Pace, 3rd Grade Teacher at East Amory.

Students say choosing the book was the highlight of the project. Fourth grader Will McComb selected literary favorite, The Wizard of Oz, and chose to make his pumpkin look like the Tin Man.

“It’s just a classic that a lot of people have read over all these years it’s been written. I think it’s just a fun book,” says McComb.

Principal Brian Jones says the project is a great opportunity for students to read a book at home with their parents and bring the book to life. This is the first year for the reading project but participation was much higher than expected.

“We have over 120 pumpkins so far. Our student body is about 390 and I bet we’ll be at about 50-75 more pumpkins coming in tomorrow,” says Jones.

Students also completed a writing assignment as apart of the pumpkin decorating project.

About

WCBI – TV was the first television station in North Mississippi. The station began its regular operations on July 13, 1956 under the ownership of Birney Imes, Jr. WCBI was first housed in a group of cement block buildings in a pasture east of Columbus on Highway 12